Saturday, February 4, 2012

The "Buffet Rule" Bill: How Will The Right Kill Common Sense?

Senate Democrats have introduced the “Buffet Rule,” a bill that would require the top 1/10thof 1% of income earners to pay no less and 30% in federal income taxes; a rate similar to that paid by most of the remainder of American taxpayers. Some Democrats in Congress think there will be too much Republican opposition to the bill and that the voters will have to decide the matter by who they vote for in the current election cycle.

This leads me to wonder… What will the 1% say or do in order to get the rest of America to vote against their own interests and in the interest of the mega rich? After all, the majority of Americans do want the rich to pay at least the same tax rate as the teacher or mail carrier, and in Warren Buffet’s case, the same as his secretary.

I suspect that before this election cycle is up, we will see some of the 1%’s old antics reappear. The kind that comes from their puppet organizations who serve to keep the huddled masses divided. Organizations such as the NRA, who will scare rural voters and gun enthusiast by saying that the Democrats are coming to take their guns away. It doesn't matter that the 2ndAmendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits such an act from ever happening. It doesn’t matter that a new amendment repealing the second would be required and that two thirds of the states would have to ratify such an amendment, thus making it improbable at best. They'll use it and it will raise millions upon millions of dollars for them and the votes that millions of dollars worth of lobbying and propaganda can buy.

Or will it come from the right's radical friends at the American Family Association or some similar religious extremist group that will encourage us all to ignore the establishment clause in the constitution, and codify their religious views; views that would deny equal rights to some Americans. I’m talking about same sex marriage here. Yes, there are still an awful lot of Americans who simply don’t understand homosexuality because it has been forced underground for centuries by repressive measures and discrimination, and those Americans who don’t understand it could easily find themselves scared into voting against their own economic interests despite the fact that same sex marriage would in no way affect them.

Could it be some nation a world away, whose military can barely threaten the nations in their own region, that scares us in voting for their candidates? Will it be the 1%ers buddies in the defense industry who will convince us all through the corporate media, that such a country poses a grave danger to the United States and that another war in inevitable? They will say that the left is too soft on defense for wanting to focus on things that matter to Americans rather than starting another war that in reality, will only serve to line the pockets of the rich and their corporations at the expense of the poor of both nations.

This election cycle, I do not want to tell anyone how to vote. Rather I would encourage everyone to see through the hype that the right uses time and time again to gain the votes of the 99%. Don’t let the scare tactics of the right stand in the way of an America where economic and social equality can become a reality. Vote and demand equality in America!

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Writers

I'm a reform minded cop who has big dreams of a world where liberty and equality are reality.
More importantly, I am a devoted husband and father of two awesome boys.
I am joined by a good friend an former police dispatcher known to us as Innocence Jaded. Together, we hope to provide you with an interesting read and a different point of view.